Before the results come out, Gao Jian Yuan does not understand the details. Meng Qing, unable to get information from Gao Jian Yuan, contacts other executors to ask if anyone knows investigators from the bureau, but no one does.
Meng Qing says to Yu Yi: “Let’s go to Lin Bai’s room.” He often hangs out with Lin Bai during mission intervals.
Yu Yi walks to Lin Bai’s last known position, places her hand on the wall, and the door silently slides open. She steps out, discovering a long white corridor that seems hundreds of meters long, though this might be an illusion caused by its monotonous color.
On the corridor walls, number plates are placed at intervals. Looking back, she sees a number plate above the door frame reading “30017”.
She turns to Meng Qing: “This is my first time walking out this door.” After arriving in the white room, she had been focused on completing tasks to earn money and never had the leisure to explore beyond this room.
Meng Qing is not surprised: “After arriving here, it took me over a year to first walk out of my room.”
Yu Yi recalls the scene he told her about his first meeting with Lin Bai and softly says: “You were severely wounded at that time.”
Meng Qingdao said: “Even after recovering from my injury, I didn’t immediately go out.”
That year, I didn’t even take on any tasks…” He laughed softly, “At that time, I was very wary of Lin Bai, feeling that he wanted to use me, and I was extremely resistant to him. After recovering from my injury, although I no longer wanted to die, I also had no interest in doing anything else.”
Yu Yi asked curiously: “What changed your mind?”
“That guy Lin Bai kept coming to talk to me, initially trying to persuade me to take on tasks, but I always ignored him, so he stopped trying. He would sit nearby playing games or watching movies, occasionally discussing mission situations with other executors. Later, he simply stayed in my room and wouldn’t leave. That period was so annoying.” Although Meng Qing said he was annoyed, a nostalgic smile hung on his face.
“Let’s go to his room. Even if we have to dig three feet deep, we’ll find this guy.” Meng Qing spoke while walking towards the end of the corridor.
At the end of the corridor was a staircase leading to upper and lower floors. Meng Qing walked past the stairs and opened the elevator.
As soon as they entered the elevator, Yu Yi watched Meng Qing open a screen inside the elevator. When he was about to select a floor, she was surprised by the number of floors: “Are there this many floors?”
Meng Qing said: “Most floors are data libraries. The number of paper document backups in the bureau is so massive… you can’t imagine it if you haven’t seen it.”
Additionally, the space occupied by servers is considerable. Did you think those things you see on terminals are stored where? All data, programs, and information are in the servers, and terminals just call them up. Only a few floors are actually for living and working. The bureau has a hospital under the medical department, a research area under the technical department, staff recreation areas, and even a kindergarten…”
“A kindergarten?” Yu Yi asked in surprise.
“Yes, staff members also have children,” Meng Qing replied with a mischievous smile. “Why don’t we have one too?”
Yu Yi blushed and gave him a reproachful glance. “Why are you talking about this here? Didn’t we agree to wait a while?”
“I’m not saying we should have one right now.”
As they spoke, the elevator reached the floor where Lin Bai lived. Standing in front of his room, Meng Qing placed his hand on the door. The door scanned his palm and fingerprints, then an electronic synthesized voice said: “Visitor does not have permission to enter.”
Meng Qing frowned slightly, looked up at the digital nameplate, confirming this was indeed Lin Bai’s room. He muttered, “Could it be because Lin Bai is missing, so they’ve modified the entry permissions? Are they forcing me to infiltrate the bureau’s system?”
Yu Yi thought for a moment: “Don’t do that first.”
Try submitting a request to regain entry permissions, like saying you left something in Lin Bai’s room that you need to retrieve. After all, you and Lin Bai are good friends and used to often enter his room.
Meng Qing said: “I’ll try. If the investigation team doesn’t allow it, we’ll have to do it the hard way.”
Fortunately, after more than ten minutes, the application was approved. Meng Qing opened Lin Bai’s door and entered with Yu Yi. He opened Lin Bai’s storage cabinet. Meng Qing scanned the cabinet from top to bottom and didn’t find anything unusual.
After a while, he squatted down and pressed a spot on the bottom of the cabinet, then operated on his terminal. A hidden door opened. Meng Qing reached in and pulled out a gray small box, laughing softly, “He really used this password.”
They returned to Yu Yi’s room. She asked, “What is this?”
“A data box. Lin Bai uses it to back up his personal files,” Meng Qing said, wirelessly connecting the gray box to his terminal and reading its data. He opened a notebook and began browsing.
“Today, I defeated Meng Qing in hluonline… He actually records something so boring!” Meng Qing said it was boring, but his face showed indignation.
Yu Yi looked at his frustrated expression and couldn’t help but smile.
Meng Qing continued browsing and muttered, “I knew something was off with him recently. Whenever I looked for him, he’d say he was busy. It turns out he was in a relationship and didn’t even tell me…”
Yu Yi smiled, “You two are really close.”
Meng Qing said somewhat hurt, “He didn’t tell me when he was in a relationship or when he broke up. We’re supposed to be close, but he knows everything about you and me.”
Yu Yi raised an eyebrow, “Isn’t that because he had to help you travel to my time and space?”
Meng Qing pondered, “Seems like it. Yes, if it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have told him either.”
Yu Yi couldn’t help but laugh, “Stop reading his diary and quickly look for clues about his disappearance.”
Meng Qing said seriously, “Clues won’t jump out by themselves. He records everything in detail, and there might be important clues hidden in his diary.”
Meng Qing closed Lin Bai’s diary and opened other document folders but found nothing. He opened another folder and found many photos, quickly browsing through them. Suddenly, he made a sound of surprise and went back to look at a few previous photos.
Yu Yi noticed several consecutive photos of Lin Bai with the same young woman and asked, “Is this the girl he was in a relationship with?
Meng Qing continued searching through the documents while muttering, “Xia Xuanxuan? The person Lin Bai likes would actually be her? But she isn’t…”
Yu Yi asked curiously, “What’s wrong with Xia Xuanxuan?”
“Xia Xuanxuan is also Lin Bai’s subordinate, a mission executor,” Meng Qing found many photos of Lin Bai with Xia Xuanxuan or Xia Xuanxuan alone. Their smiles were bright, their actions intimate, clearly a couple deeply in love.
“But I remember she was arrested for illegally profiting from smuggling resources from different time and space,” Meng Qing said while searching for information about Xia Xuanxuan, quickly finding records of her arrest and trial. But when he browsed the records, his expression suddenly became extremely shocked, “…The person who reported her was Lin Bai!”
Yu Yi sat beside Meng Qing, looking at his terminal, also seeing that familiar name. She looked at Meng Qing in surprise, “Why would Lin Bai report her?”
If they were truly lovers, shouldn’t he have first tried to persuade her to stop? Why would Lin Bai do something that seems like betrayal?
Even if Xia Xuanxuan was unwilling to stop, she felt he shouldn’t and wouldn’t report her.
